Cops: Man fatally stabbed over hat at tony Philadelphia park

New Jersey Devils goalie Cory Schneider, center, rests while teammates skate during warmups prior to an NHL hockey game against the New York Islanders, Friday, Feb. 19, 2016, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Julio Cortez

March 14, 2016

PHILADELPHIA (AP) A man wearing a New Jersey Devils cap stabbed another man to death in a posh section of Philadelphia after an argument about the hat turned physical, police said Monday.

The stabbing happened just after 3 a.m. Sunday in the city's tony Rittenhouse Square, authorities said. Emergency responders found 24-year-old Colin McGovern, of Churchville, lying on the sidewalk with stab wounds to the torso. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.

''This was over a hockey cap,'' Homicide Capt. James Clark said, calling the crime ''very senseless.''

Clark said McGovern and three companions had been out for a night on the town and were just getting out of a cab with the intention of finding a hotel. Clark said McGovern made a comment about 40-year-old Steven Simminger's Devils cap, and an argument escalated into a physical altercation.

The two men wound up on the ground, with McGovern on top of Simminger when he was stabbed, Clark said.

Simminger then went to a Veterans Affairs hospital for treatment of a cut on his hand as well as a mental evaluation, telling people there he had been involved in an altercation, authorities said. Police were tipped off that he was there, and they arrested and charged him with murder and related offenses.

Clark couldn't say which branch of the military Simminger had been in.

Simminger lives in New Jersey with his sister, Clark said, and was in the neighborhood after visiting friends.

No attorney information was listed for Simminger in online court documents.

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